Total telephone user base rises to 102.26 crore in September

Total telephone subscriber base increased marginally to 102.26 crore at the end of September on the back of rise in wireless users even as the fixed line base continued to fall, Trai said today.

As per data shared by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the total telephone base in the country stood at 101.41 crore at the end of August. The wireless subscribers increased to 99.66 crore at the end of September from 98.81 crore in August while fixed line base declined to 2.59 crore from 2.60 crore.

The overall tele-density increased to 80.98 per cent in September from 80.40 per cent in the preceding month. Trai had earlier said that 41.7 lakh users submitted requests for mobile number portability (MNP) in September.

"With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 17.22 crore at the end of August, 2015 to 17.63 crore at the end of September, 2015," Trai said. The telecom regulator said, as on September 30, the private access service providers held 91.64 per cent market share of the wireless subscribers, whereas state-run BSNL and MTNL held only 8.36 per cent share.

In the reported period, Idea Cellular added 26.37 lakh subscribers to take its overall base to 16.65 crore, while Bharti Airtel added 22.28 lakh users and increased its base to 23.52 crore. Vodafone and BSNL added 15.93 lakh and 10.48 lakh users, respectively, to take their bases to 18.81 crore and 7.96 crore.

Reliance Communications added 4.35 lakh customers and its base rose to 11.03 crore at the end of September, whereas Aircel added 2.47 lakh users to take its base to 8.39 crore. Telenor added 2.31 lakh subscribers and its base at the end of September stood at 4.77 crore while Sistema Shyam Teleservices lost 75,455 users and its base reduced to 83.60 lakh.

State-run MTNL, which offers services in Delhi and Mumbai, added 10,544 subscribers to take its base to 35.98 lakh at the end of September whereas Tata Teleservices added 2,719 users and its base stood at 6.20 crore.

The number of broadband subscribers increased from 11.73 crore at the end of August to 12.08 crore at the end of September with monthly growth rate of 3.02 per cent, Tria said as per reports garnered from the service providers.